Raised Catholic, this Muslim professor is
bringing the moderate viewpoint to the world.

by Sarah
Childress,

Newsweek,
12/25/06

Dec. 25,
2006 - Jan. 1, 2007 issue - Ingrid Mattson can tell that nobody likes to sit
next to her on airplanes anymore. Ever since she converted to Islam two decades
ago, Mattson, a 43-year-old white Canadian, has been learning what it means to
be part of a mistrusted minority. But the recently elected president of the
Islamic Society of North America doesn't mind when people speak to her in an
extra-loud voice, or stare as she walks by. "It helps me understand what so many
other Muslims and visible minorities go through," she says. "I have the
advantage of not having grown up with that ... so I have a certain confidence.

She's going
to need it. Mattson is the first woman, the first nonimmigrant and the first
Muslim convert to be elected to head the largest Islamic group for social
outreach and education in North America. Her election comes at a critical time
in the history of Islam. As violent extremists threaten to obliterate the voice
of moderate Islam worldwide, Muslims in Western countries, isolated by rising
discrimination, struggle to find their place. Such challenges would be daunting
for any leader, let alone someone relatively new to the faith. But Mattson, a
professor at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut who is fluent in Arabic, sees
herself as uniquely positioned to change the way the world views Muslims—and how
they view themselves.

Raised a
Roman Catholic, Mattson grew up attending daily mass. "I had the simple, naive
piety of a child," she recalls. But as a teenager, she realized she no longer
believed in the God they talked about in church. "My older brother, said, 'Look
at it pragmatically. It's only one hour a week. If it's true, then you're set,
and if not, you've only wasted one hour a week.' I said, 'No, thanks.' It wasn't
something I could be wishy-washy about." She abandoned religion, she thought,
for good.

But just a
few years later, Mattson became fascinated by the generosity and dignity she saw
in some Muslim friends, even as they faced prejudice. "They had a sense of
balance," she says, that encouraged her to study the Qur'an. The first time she
prayed the salat—the ritual prayer of bowing and prostration—she was
stunned to feel the closeness with God that she'd lost as a teenager. He was no
longer in the Church, but he was everywhere else, she says—in nature, art and
the welcoming faces of other Muslims. At 23, she embraced the faith, and began
to wear the hijab, covering all but her face and hands in public.

Mattson—now
raising two teenage kids with her husband, Amer—has become an ambassador for
Islam in the West, preaching tolerance and understanding. She founded a Muslim
chaplaincy program at Hartford—the only one in North America—that trains
students to represent their faith and minister in places like hospitals,
colleges, prisons and the military. Within the Muslim community, Mattson aims to
form locally elected councils to give worshipers more control over who preaches
in their mosques and help keep out extremists. She's also encouraging mosques to
hire more female imams and pushing the women in her classes to be more
assertive. "I can be very mean," says the petite, mild-mannered Mattson.
"Sometimes I'll ask them to repeat themselves three times—until their voice is
loud enough." Mattson's betting that people will listen.